At this point, it’s a fair question. Do we need another blog? Some might even ask, “Justin, why don’t you just blog more on the Seven Mile Road website?

Here are a few reasons I want to spend the time, energy, and resources necessary to start JTGOTT.COM.

Serve Executive Pastors of Small Churches

I am in my third year as an Executive Pastor (XP) in a small church. Even more than being a small church, we have had limited staff throughout our time and have been slow developing in some important areas.

There are some outstanding resources available to help XPs (Please spend 10 hours at XPastor.org for every blog post of mine you read!) and I don’t tend to replace those. Rather, I am hoping to provide specific help to those in small churches that may not have staff, existing systems, or even an idea where to get started. This blog will aim first at those of you serving in XP or similar roles in small churches. Because I sometimes want/need someone to just show me how to do something, I’ll post on how we do things at Seven Mile Road hoping to save you time.

Serve the Broader Executive Pastor Community

I will also write on the centrality of the gospel to church leadership, which I hope will serve many XPs. For example, the role of the Holy Spirit in the XP’s life matters regardless of your zip code or staff size. I am hoping that this work will be helpful to many and that this blog will provide an opportunity to dialogue with and learn from some exceptional folks.

Serve Other Church Leaders

Strategies, tools, and gospel application are broad and will often apply to leading of different size teams with different goals. While my primary work at Seven Mile Road is as XP, I also lead our bands. So much of what I’ll write about will apply in several areas. Because of this, I expect that this site will also help worship leaders, church planters, deacons, and many others that are leading Jesus’ people on Jesus’ mission.

It Should Be Fun

I love the church, love my “job,” enjoy talking about efficiency, systems, and technology. If this gives a space to talk about that and anyone gains, I will be thrilled.

I’m looking forward to seeing what happens here. Please come back often, let me know what you think, and let’s see if we can’t spur one another along to making a big gospel dent with our lives.